Judge mulls charges in double murder

Double-murder suspect Robert Leeming will learn in August exactly what charges he’ll have to fight when he eventually goes to trial.

Provincial court Judge Terry Semenuk on Monday reserved his decision in Leeming’s case at the conclusion of the Calgary man’s months-long preliminary inquiry.

Semenuk heard submissions from defence lawyer Balfour Der and Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor

on what charges the accused should be committed to stand trial on.

Leeming faces two charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Jasmine Lovett and her 22-month-old daughter, Aliyah Sanderson.

But Taylor argued Semenuk should order the accused to stand trial for the more serious charge of first-degree murder in the mother’s death.

Der countered there was only sufficient evidence for a jury to weigh on a charge of second-degree murder in Lovett’s killing and no case for his client to answer in Aliyah’s death.

At worst, the lawyer said, a committal on a charge of manslaughter in connection with the toddler’s death should be ordered.

At the beginning of the preliminary inquiry in February, Semenuk imposed a publication ban on the evidence at Der’s request.

The bodies of Lovett, 25, and her little girl were found May 6, 2019 in Kananaskis Country.